US Plains HRW Wheat-Basis bids mostly flat on slow farmer sales, lower futures

CHICAGO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Spot basis bids for hard red winter wheat held mostly steady around the U.S. Plains on Wednesday as futures prices retreated and farmer selling remained slow, grain merchants said.

• Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell on Wednesday for the third time in four sessions. Farmer selling has been limited as cash prices remain below recent highs.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture is due to release weekly export sales data early on Thursday for the week ended October 30. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect net wheat sales between 250,000 and 650,000 metric tons, after sales of 499,778 tons the previous week.

• K.C. March hard red winter wheat KWH26 futures last traded 3-1/4 cents lower at $5.29-3/4 per bushel.

Basis values are quoted against futures in cts/bu:

NOTES:

H = March, K = May, N = July, U = September

Z = December; UNQ = Unquoted bids

0 = Sp Option price; NC = No comparison

= No. 1 12% hard winter wheat, rail bids

= Ordinary protein, rail bids

LINKS:

K.C. HRW wheat protein scales KCBT/SCA

U.S. weekly wheat crop progress US/WHE

U.S. forward basis WHEAT/BASIS

U.S. Midwest cash grain PM GRA/PM

U.S. FOB Gulf Grain GRA/F